Guest post: Tools and Resources to Help in Your Essay Writing

29Apr

Today’s guest blog post is brought to you by blogger and writer Kate.

Tools and Resources to Help in Your Essay Writing

Creative writing thrives in diversity and choice and lots of different sources of information and inspiration. Writers don’t like to get too focused in one thing or another, and students with a talent for writing quickly understand that it is always healthy to be diverse in everything you do. If you need help with your essay writing, use the tools and resources available to you, and benefit from the sheer diversity of help available. This guide takes a look at some of the best tools and resources to help in your essay writing.

Resources for Structuring Your Essay

There are lots of resources available that help you structure out your paragraphs, and these will help you to write paragraphs that fit in well, that are logical and interesting to read. There are guides that go into lots of detail – going as far as the structure of each sentence and the words used to develop arguments.

But what about the structure of your entire essay? Here you will find lots of help also, with resources that give you examples of small essays and how to arrange the paragraphs within the essays. For example, a classic essay format is the five-paragraph essay. If you have been lucky enough to have been assignment a small essay, then you can use direct examples and resources to help you out.

Example Essay Resources

Now here is where you should be careful! Searching for example assignments is a fast way to get a feel for the important topics and issues of your subject, and also to get an idea for the general style of writing and depth of research, but you should always keep an open mind and you should never resort to copying text. If you are interested in any arguments that have been put forward in a paper, don’t let those arguments become the focus of your paper. Example essays should spur your ideas and creativity and act as a base for doing your own work. They should not act as a substitute.

Essay Writing Workshops

The best way to improve your ability to construct essays (as well as your general writing ability) is to practice. There are lots of different places on the web which can help you further with your essay writing with classes and workshops:

University and college academic portals

Online educational resources

Forums and message boards

Online writing communities

Some of these classes and workshops are designed for mature students, while some of these classes are there to help academic students who are getting to grips with essay writing. There are resources available which tackle everything from analyzing essay titles to planning essays and writing inclusively.

Essay Writing Services

Essay writing services act as a support service when you need extra help with your essays. They can offer help with research, essay planning or essay writing, and they can also offer help with revising and proofreading. This makes them a good option when you are not finding the level of support that you need for your essay, or if you are struggling with certain aspects of your essay and need a helping hand. While many students use these services simply to do the work for them, they are actually designed to help support the student in their own work, and this is where such essay writing services can be highly useful for students. Students can make good use of sample essays written by professional essay writers.

Diagnosing Your Essay

How do you improve your essay when your options are limited? All students have different strengths and weaknesses and different experiences – essay diagnostics are helpful resources that tell you what to do with your existing essay material depending on your personal situation. If for example the main problem of your essay is a lack of research and planning, then the diagnostic will prioritize this problem and tell you what to do first. Instead you might have packed in too many notes and resources. Here the essay diagnostic will help you make your essay more clear and focused.

Citation Helpers and Guides

If you are new to the world of citations and referencing, there are also guides available to help you become an effective researcher and citer. Citation skills – such as knowing where to find good sources of information and evidence – are a key skill that every student must develop. You should know the importance of having a wide range of references from different sources, you should know how to gain access to peer-reviewed materials, and you should know how to quickly find information that is relevant to your essay.

Do you really hate adding all of your citations manually, or do you often miss out on those important little details? There are a number of citation creation services available online which cut out this problem and simplify the citation creation process. They help you to create your citations in a matter of moments, and they also make it easier to give other academics and researchers that all-important recognition.

College Writing Programs

There are many colleges which provide writing programs for undergraduate students. Most of these writing programs are designed to help students with a specific aspect of their writing (such as argumentative skills for argumentative essays, or descriptive skills for expository essays) as well as help them improve their general skills. There are many great examples of college writing programs where undergraduate/postgraduate tutors are used to help out students. They won’t be able to help you with your assigned work – however they will help you to structure your paper and improve the effectiveness of your essay revisions.

Essay Mapping Services

During the early stages of your essay you will be coming up with new ideas and working out ways to organize your essay. There are plenty of online sources which make it easier to outline and develop your ideas and come up with an effective essay plan. There are essay maps – suitable for shorter, more basic essays for younger students – and there are also lots of online brainstorming and mind mapping applications.

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Thank you, Kate.

Kate is a passionate blogger and writer. She is a part of a team of experienced writers at Aussiewriter, which provides students with quality essays, that help them improve their writing skills.

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